What are some of your best ways of defending a HB out of the backfield?

[NastyQueDawg]

Guy used Tiki Barber and motioned him out of backfield. Caused match-up problems. Got beat with him streaking str8 up the field. What are some of the ways you combat this? Thanks in advance.

[BOOBOOSD]

When people do that, I make sure I'm in control of a Safety towards that same side. If not, I backup my coverage at the last second just as he does the same to me by motioning out his HB at the last moment. You should have no problems swatting the ball, remember most HBs are small, just don't let him run past you. When people do this it's pretty obvious I think that they want to hit their HB deep or use him as a decoy to hit someone else underneath your safety coverage. I do the same with L. Tomlinson a lot since I have no real speed deep threat on my team other than him. Stick with 2Deep Man Under if he's only looking to go deep, Cover1 with hook and or purple zones underneath if he's using the HB as a decoy to pass underneath or Cover3, back up your secondary coverage if in Cover3 especially and take control of the deep safety, the same with Cover1, take control of that Deep safety. Don't ever run Cover0 vs. this, your only asking to get beat deep. Also, lets say you have a Safety manned up on the HB, don't allow that Safety to come down, leave that safety ontop so he has a bigger cusion, so in other words, don't use the coverage audible shift, this can also sometimes give the illusion that your running a Cover2 Deep zone with the safeties, freezing the D can help also in that case. You can also try blitzing to force the quicker pass, for example pick a play like Nickel-3-3-5- 3 DeepManUnder, freeze the D, playmaker all the LBs to blitz, then once he motions out his HB, he'll be lined up with DBs, but if he motions over to the side of the SS, PM that SS to man up the HB instead of doubling the FL-WR and you still got a 3Deep zone which you can back the coverage up and you can control the FS over top, then shift the LBs in a way they will get heat, you'll most likely give up coverage to a FB or TE, but it's all good as long as you limit that deep pass to the HB and you can still react with the FS if it's a quick pass since the blitz is coming.